Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Bodyform reply to Facebook post - and other Responding strategies

Chapter 9 of my book Paid Owned Earned (see Amazon link on the right of this page) is dedicated to 'Responding' and highlights examples of different types of Responding activity. It looks at how Responding drives advocacy, how customer service can utilise social channels (and the structures needed to support this type of initiative) and it also features a number of examples of Responding as part of brand strategy (from Tesco and Jedis to Boston Police and zombies to Tiger Woods' Jesus Shot.)

The formula is fairly simple. Activate Listening to tune into consumer conversations and, where appropriate, create content in Response in order to drive attention and extended reach through person to person sharing.

Bodyform have clearly read chapter 9 as they have created a video in Response to something that Facebook user Richard Neill posted to the Bodyform Facebook page on 8th October. The Bodyform rant (which begins 'Hi, as a man I must ask why you have lied to us for all these years...') was featured on Mashable after picking up thousands of Likes - current total is 90,247 Likes:

Richard Neill Bodyform Facebook post

This Facebook post has generated a lot of attention for Richard Neill and Bodyform. It appears to be a genuine, if slightly odd, Facebook post and Bodyform have now Responded with a video titled 'Bodyform Responds: The Truth' featuring a message from (fictional) Bodyform CEO Caroline Williams.

Bold, brave, unconventional and 174,000 YouTube views in 24 hours. It's not necessarily to everyone's taste (I'm clearly not the desired audience), but I assume this Bodyform tone of voice appeals to the target group - and if nothing else it has definitely got a lot of attention in a short space of time with widespread press and online coverage. [Also interesting to see YouTube being used to Respond to a Facebook post.]